Pence: NATO mission ‘will go forward’

Vice President-elect Mike Pence said the mission of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will continue as the incoming administration takes office.

Pence’s remarks come after President-elect Donald Trump called NATO “obsolete” in an interview with a German newspaper, saying that the alliance “didn’t deal with terrorism.” 

While Pence repeated Trump’s critiques of NATO’s priorities, he insisted the nearly 70-year-old alliance will continue.

“It’s an alliance that should expand to include other security threats. But that historic mission of NATO will go forward. I’m confident,” Pence told NBC News’ “MTP Daily.”

{mosads}President-elect Donald Trump said during the campaign that the United States would come to the aid of the Baltic States should they face Russian aggression as long the countries “fulfill their obligations to us.” As of 2015, only five out of the 28 NATO countries met the alliance’s goal of spending at least 2 percent of GDP on defense.

Trump’s criticisms of NATO have alarmed hawkish members of the foreign policy community, who see NATO as an essential check to Russia.

Pence reiterated Trump’s conditions, arguing that NATO allies must also commit to fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

“The other piece though, and we’ve seen real movement on this and there’s some bipartisan support for this in the Congress, that NATO needs to refocus its mission on confronting radical Islamic terrorism, the threat of ISIS…” the vice president-elect said.

Pence also echoed Trump’s call for NATO members to meet their defense obligations.

“Number one, we need to ask member nations to begin to live up to their minimum commitment in security,” he said.